


Drinks at the Pub In between Worlds

by Cornerofmadness



Category: Angel: the Series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 14:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20259436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: All Connor wants is a night on the town in Dublin. What he gets is vampires and interdimensional travel. Alphonse is on a mission for General Mustang. It should have been easy, but a stranger complicates everything.





	Drinks at the Pub In between Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt** Connor Reilly walks into a bar and meets Alphonse Elric
> 
> **Fandoms** _Angel: The Series & Fullmetal Alchemist_
> 
> **Disclaimer** \- I own nothing. Connor belongs to Joss Whedon and Alphonse belongs to Hiromu Arakawa (okay I do own Lily).
> 
> **Content** – no warnings needed other than mild violence.
> 
> **Author’s Note** – This was written for the 2019 round of Intoabar challenge where two characters from different fandoms meet in a bar. Needless to say, this is crossover fiction. I chose Connor Reilley from _Angel_ and was assigned Alphonse Elric from _Fullmetal Alchemist_. I guess I’m lucky I wasn’t given Edward because he and Connor would be talking about their daddy issue for 30,000 words or more. Thanks to evil_little_dog and enemytosleep for being sounding boards and helping me figure out some of the details.

XXX

He’d come to Ireland with such high hopes. Angel had funded part of the trip, eager for Connor to see his ancestral home. Faith and Giles had sweetened the deal with a mysterious creature stalking Dublin and the reformed Watchers’ council was willing to pay the rest to have his help. Connor had gone anticipating having a great time, learning about Ireland, getting a good fight in and maybe _finally_ impressing Faith. So far, he hadn’t found the creature and Faith kept him at arm’s length because she didn’t want to disappoint Angel by getting naked with his son – damn if Angel didn’t ruin _everything_ \- but at least Ireland was fun. He’d developed a liking of pubs, which was probably genetic.

All Connor wanted tonight was a pint of stout, maybe a little Jameson to go with while he listened to the music. Instead, he caught whiff of something he hated just outside the Vicar’s Head. Connor tugged a stake out of his pocket and followed them in past the heavy hanging baskets filled with flowers. Their colors were muted in the dark of night, shadowed by the play of the streetlights. It was one of the things he liked about the city. Flowers were everywhere, making it so much prettier than L.A. Too bad it had vampires too.

The duo had moved to the back of the pub. He could smell that weird scent that clung to vampires, like they were somehow musty and antiquated and it stood out over the sour smell of hops and sweat and the embedded decades of cigarette smoke oozing out of the seventh century wood. The hairs stood up on Connor’s arms and neck. Something was weird here, stranger than the usual night at the pub; hell, odder than vampires in general. They tended not to be too outlandish, merely unsightly and gross. Magic, he could almost taste it. He hated it so much, but he couldn’t find let it distract him. Magic wasn’t necessarily evil. Vampires – his dad and Spike aside – always were. 

So much for a nice night out. He caught up to the vampires in the back giving them no egress except past him. The woman, a fiery redhead, leapt at him. Whether she thought he was prey or predator, it didn’t matter. He danced aside, spinning with the stake in hand. He slammed it home with ease, moving through her dust.

“Sarah!” the male vampire screamed. He grabbed at Connor managing to wing him, forcing him back against the wall. 

Suddenly the wall wasn’t there, and they were stumbling back. That’s when things went very weird.

X X X

Al sipped his beer, having learned to go slow with an unknown drink during his time in Xing where he was fairly sure Ling had been trying to kill him with rice wines and assorted weirdness like rat wine. Some of them had been like drinking lightning or otherwise just gross. His beer was bright and a bit hoppier than he liked but it was a hot evening and the coolness of the beverage helped matters.

It had been a while since he’d been in Central, but he welcomed the change of scenery. He’d finished his job in Xing for the time being and headed home to Resembol. However, it was summer and Winry was eight months pregnant and miserable in the heat. In turn, that made Ed wretched, and he spent his time annoying the hell out of Al. He gladly escaped his older brother when General Mustang had asked for his help. 

Al hadn’t expected one of the first things Roy would ask him to do would be wait in this bar for one of his ‘sisters.’ He didn’t mind, however. Roy’s sisters were often attractive but more importantly they were always intelligent and interesting. Whoever this sister would turn out to be, he was excited to meet her. Al wasn’t used to jewelry, but the pinkie ring Roy had given him was the way she would know he was Roy’s contact. He’d tucked himself near the far wall, so they’d have more privacy when she did find him. 

Taking a bigger swallow of beer, Al let himself relax. Suddenly just in front of him two men locked in combat seemed to phase straight out of the smoke created by the people at the table in the other corner where three men smoked with as much abandon as Havoc. One of the men bursting out of the haze was small, bigger than Ed but still small and slight and the other was taller, wider and had a much longer reach. That didn’t seem to deter the other man. Were those fangs in the bigger man’s mouth and what was with his face?

Al jumped to his feet, thinking this had to be a chimera out to kill someone. They had hoped all of them had been dealt with when Father had been destroyed, but they also knew that had been a naïve hope. He went to clap and at least separate them with a wall but before Al’s fingers could touch, the little man slammed his fist dead center into the chimera’s chest. The chimera burst into a cloud of smoke but there was no telltale sign of the energy Al associated with alchemy. Al rested his fingers together but didn’t form a transmutation circle, unsure of what he had just seen. Was this a new form of alchemy he had yet to study?

The stranger dusted himself off, glancing around warily. The smokers had barely glanced toward the short brawl. Al leapt forward, grabbing his wrist. He widened his eyes as Al, yanking back with more strength than should have belonged in such willowy limbs. 

“How did you do that?” Al asked, thinking was this man like Scar, halting the process in the dissolution phase of alchemy. “You killed him!” 

The stranger raised his arm and that’s when Al saw the wooden stake in his hand. He stepped back putting his hands together. “Vampire, he was already dead.”

Al made a face. “Vampire?”

“You know, blood sucking undead.” He shrugged.

“They’re myth. What sort of alchemy did you use on that chimera to put him in the dissolution stage?” Al grabbed the stake, pulling it toward him. He was surprised the stranger let him take it. “I don’t see any tattoos on the wood. Is the tattoo on you?”

Those wide blue eyes grew even bigger. “How did you know? I just got tattooed. Betting Dad has something to say about it because he _always_ does.”

Al rolled his eyes. Just what he needed another short guy with as many issues with his father as Ed had. “Can I see it?” He hoped he sounded calm because anyone who could transmute someone to dust and just leave him that way wasn’t to be trifled with. On the other hand, the stranger didn’t seem dangerous, at least not at the moment. He gestured to the table hoping the young men would sit and deescalate the situation.

The stranger shrugged, taking a seat. Al did likewise and gave back the stake. “Don’t know why you’d want to but sure.” He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a band of knotwork around his upper arm. Al traced part of it. It was like nothing he’d seen. “What kind of transmutation array is this?”

“Transmu…what?” He wrinkled his nose. “It’s Celtic knotwork.”

What the heck was Celtic? Maybe it was a Xerxes word he didn’t know. “So, it’s not for alchemy?”

“I have no idea what alchemy is.” 

“Alchemy? It’s…well it’s life, isn’t it? You used it to destroy that chimera.”

He shook his head. “No, I just stabbed it with wood to the heart. That’s how you kill a vampire. My tattoo has nothing to do with it. Why would it?”

“To transmute something, you need an array to represent your goals, the dissolution and recombination.” Al could see it on the stranger’s face, he had no idea what alchemy was. He pointed to the glass on the table. “Watch.” Al transmuted it to a more boat-like shape.

The stranger pushed back, nearly toppling the chair. “Magic! Dammit, I hate magic.”

Al scowled. “No, not magic. It’s alchemy.”

He pointed to the glass. “Where I’m from, that’s magic.”

“Where are you from?” Maybe that was a question Al should have asked first.

The stranger glanced back at the wall. “I’ve been through dimensions before. Pretty sure I went through one to get here, which sucks because I have no idea _>how_ I did it.”

Al played with the stupid pinkie ring, thinking on his time growing up in one dimension with his soul here in this one. “Me too.”

“Sounds like a story. Want to get another drink and compare because – and no offense meant – I’m really hoping I’m not stuck here.”

“I need to step out for a moment because I’m afraid all of this bru-ha-ha might have frightened off someone I was waiting for,” Al replied, hoping it hadn’t. Roy would be annoyed, and much like with Ed, that was never a good thing.

“Yeah fine.”

Al walked to the front of the bar, and the stranger followed. “By the way I’m Alphonse Elric.”

“Connor Reilley.” 

“Nice to meet you. Most people call me Al,” he said, stepping outside into the bright sun.

“Hmm, it’s day here. It was night when I popped in here,” Connor stared up and down the street, taking it in. “I hope this isn’t like Quor-Toth, and I’ll get home to find everyone a decade older.”

“That happened to you before?” That would be a curious thing worthy of study. He didn’t want to see Connor stuck here but if it happened, Al had so many questions he wanted to discuss.

Connor nodded. “I think I’m technically three or four years old, but I grew up in a place where nearly two decades pass but only a week or two happened back home.”

“That’s…unfortunate.” Al figured that was an understatement but was at a loss for anything else to say.

Connor grunted. “Nice looking city, clean, so no vampires or demons?”

“No but the occasional chimera has been seen.”

“So, what are they, and who are you looking for?”

“They’re created from using alchemy in the worst of ways, merging two separate creatures, like a human and a dog.” Al shuddered, never quite able to escape memories of Nina. “And I’m looking for a friend’s sister.”

“And she’s right behind you. You two were making quite the scene.”

Al whipped around to see a young Xingese woman in the bar doorway. She looked enough like Mustang to be a true sister. “Lily?”

She smiled. “You boys look like you could use a drink.”

Connor smiled so wide and deranged Al had to wonder if Hohenheim had ever made it to this young man’s world, and if he had another brother whose smile was as scary as Ed’s. “You buying, or are we?”

“Everyone for themselves,” Lily replied.

“Sounds good to me,” Al looked forward to what this encounter could teach him.

X X X

Lily sat back watching and listening to the two young men. She couldn’t impart anything Roy was interested in, not in mixed company, but this encounter in itself was of value. She sipped the lavender gin she’d talked them into and ultimately paid for as Connor had no viable money. Al sipped it. Connor took it like it was a shot to drain as fast as possible. Of course, he could be simply thirsty. After all, after the first round of drinks, he and Al had talked themselves into sparring. Now that had been something to see. They both amazed her, fighting to a draw though Al said Connor was holding back, that he might be more than just human. Even when Al introduced a little alchemy, he hadn’t quite been able to pin Connor down. She wished Roy had been here to see it.

“So, you’re telling me your father was a living Philosopher’s Stone, immortal for centuries,” Connor said softly, leaning against the wall at the back of the bar.

“How is that any more implausible than your father is a centuries old living dead man?”

Connor shrugged. “Guess it isn’t, but it’s weird. My family is weird too, so no worries. At least your brother sounds fun.”

AL laughed-and Lily didn’t blame him given all she’d heard about Edward Elric from Roy. “Ed’s a good man but fun…that depends on who you ask.”

“Probably the same could be said of me.” Connor grinned. 

“I think you’d like Ed or maybe, like Roy, clashed terribly because you’re so much alike.” Al shook his head woefully. “But I don’t really understand how you got here.”

“Me either. I was fighting the vampires, hit the wall and suddenly I was here. It was definitely different than the last time I’ve dimension hopped.” Connor scowled. “Again, I sure as hell hope I can find my way back.”

“You boys do know the nickname for this place, right?” Lily asked. 

“No,” Al said at the same time as Connor replied, “I don’t even know where I am.”

“They call this the pub in between worlds.” She pointed to the wall. “A couple times of the year near the equinoxes and solstices, the barrier thins, and you can cross.”

“So, you’re saying I should get a move on if I plan to get out of here without having to wait months,” Connor said, reaching for the gin bottle.

“If you get stuck, you can always stay with me, Connor,” Al offered. It was the right thing to do after all.

“Thanks, Al.”

“I wish I could see your world, if only for a little,” Al looked at the wall, wondering what new adventure awaited on the other side. Ed wouldn’t be thrilled if he disappeared for what he thought was a few days and he returned to find out his niece or nephew was now twenty. Al would hate for that to happen himself, but still curiosity nagged at him.

“It’s…rougher, busier. You’re probably better off here. Lily, do you know how I can get back? Besides you have business with Al, and I’m just in the way.”

“As far as I know, you can just walk through,” Lily replied.

Nodding, Connor stood. “Well thank you. It was nice meeting you both and thanks for the drinks, Lily.”

“It was certainly memorable.” Al stood to shake hands. He tugged off his pinkie ring. “Here, a souvenir.”

“Thanks. I have nothing…oh wait. You can have this. I can always make more.” Connor surrendered his vampire stake. “Here goes nothing.”

Connor felt around the wall, testing it, and suddenly he was gone.

“Now that is something you don’t see every day,” Al murmured. “Ed’s never going to believe it.”

“Roy either but we’ll have to endeavor to convince them.” Lily smiled at him. “Shall we get down to business?”

Al took a seat. “Absolutely.” His mind wasn’t on business but what else could he do? It would make for an interesting journal entry.

X X X

Connor shook off the disorientation of coming through the dimensional portal. He pulled out his cellphone and it seemed to only be a few hours later. He was now back inside the Vicar’s Head. If not for the pinkie ring Alphonse has given him, he would have thought it was a drunken delusion. Only he never drank that much, and the ring was real. It didn’t fit so he slipped it into his jeans’ pocket. He’d talk to Angel and Giles about it later. They’d be interested. It’d been a long night, so Connor dragged out of the pub only to run into Faith on the way in.

She smiled at him. “You look rough.”

“It’s been a long weird night.”

Faith took his hand. “Want to make it weirder?”

He had no idea what she had in mind but how could he say no? 

“Absolutely.”


End file.
